The effects of constructive journalism: Towards a theoretical framework

  • News media coverage mainly focuses on problems and conflicts, resulting in unintended negative consequences for democracy and journalism itself. Constructive journalism aims to address these issues by emphasizing solution-oriented reporting. However, research on its effects remains inconsistent, mainly due to vague definitions of constructive journalism and a lack of theoretical foundation. This paper first proposes a content-centered definition of constructive journalism, suggesting three dimensions: balance, matter-of-factness, and focus on solutions. Using a series of established theories, we then present a theoretical framework that models the impacts of the content dimensions in a chain of effects from emotions to cognitive and conative variables. Our approach offers a systematic basis for future research by enabling experimental analysis of operationalizable and empirically separable content dimensions and by integrating research on constructive journalism into a variety ofNews media coverage mainly focuses on problems and conflicts, resulting in unintended negative consequences for democracy and journalism itself. Constructive journalism aims to address these issues by emphasizing solution-oriented reporting. However, research on its effects remains inconsistent, mainly due to vague definitions of constructive journalism and a lack of theoretical foundation. This paper first proposes a content-centered definition of constructive journalism, suggesting three dimensions: balance, matter-of-factness, and focus on solutions. Using a series of established theories, we then present a theoretical framework that models the impacts of the content dimensions in a chain of effects from emotions to cognitive and conative variables. Our approach offers a systematic basis for future research by enabling experimental analysis of operationalizable and empirically separable content dimensions and by integrating research on constructive journalism into a variety of established media effect theories. Thus, we meet the demand for a stronger theoretical focus and aim to clarify constructive journalism’s impact on audiences.show moreshow less

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Author:Matthias MackORCiD, Olaf JanduraORCiDGND, Marcus MaurerORCiDGND
Qualitätssicherung:peer reviewed
open access:Hybrid - Subskriptionszeitschrift
Research fields:Kultur / Medien
Fachbereich/Einrichtung:Hochschule Düsseldorf / Fachbereich - Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Document Type:Article
Year of Completion:2025
Language of Publication:English
Publisher:SAGE Publications
Parent Title (English):Journalism
Page Number:20
First Page:1
Last Page:20
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-58634
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849251395798
ISSN:1464-8849
GND Keyword:JournalismusGND; BerichterstattungGND; GefühlGND; Positive PsychologieGND; DemokratieGND
Corresponding Author:Matthias Mack
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Licence (German):Creative Commons - CC BY-NC - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell 4.0 International
Release Date:2025/11/18
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